Display problems for DOS in XP

[Guest]

I am running an old DOS based PCB design and circuit diagram drawing program
(EasyPC) and am having problems with the display. Text becomes unreadable -
letters are replaced with nonsense characters, I've tried changing the
codepage (using CHCP) to no avail. If anyone has any ideas they'd be much
appreciated.
Alun

 

[Galen]

In Beardy Alun <[email protected]> had this to say:

My reply is at the bottom of your sent message:

I am running an old DOS based PCB design and circuit diagram drawing
program (EasyPC) and am having problems with the display. Text
becomes unreadable - letters are replaced with nonsense characters,
I've tried changing the codepage (using CHCP) to no avail. If anyone
has any ideas they'd be much appreciated.
Alun

Assuming you've already tried compatability mode options for 98 or 95...

DOSBox, a x86 emulator with DOS:
http://dosbox.sourceforge.net/

Give that a try and it might very well be your answer. It's a bit of a trick
getting it setup the first time but after you've undergone the learning
curve (it's not too hard) you'll probably love it and give up on XP's DOS
emulation mode.

Galen

 

[Guest]

DOSBox looks good. Only problem is I don't seem to be able to get support for
UK keyboard, have I missed something?
Thanks
Alun

 

[Galen]

In Beardy Alun <[email protected]> had this to say:

My reply is at the bottom of your sent message:

DOSBox looks good. Only problem is I don't seem to be able to get
support for UK keyboard, have I missed something?
Thanks
Alun

Well... You sure like to make things tough don't you? <grins>

Go here:

http://help.fdos.org/en/hhstndrd/xkeyb.htm

Then download the application (XKeyb) from any of the download sites listed
here:

http://www.google.com/search?num=100&hl=en&lr=&newwindow=1&safe=off&q=Xkeyb

Galen

 

[Galen]

In Beardy Alun <[email protected]> had this to say:

My reply is at the bottom of your sent message:

All looked good for a while, until I tried to use the backslash key
and out popped a hash. Could it be that the USB keyboard supplied by
Dell doesn't quite work as well as the PS2 and older keyboards in
DosBox? I've tried using the scan keyboard function supplied with
Xkeyb19 to create a new .key file for this keyboard whilst in the
Microsoft XP DOS environment with no success. Many thanks for your
help
Alun

Alun,

I'm going to be completely honest with you. I haven't a clue but in turn I
suspect that the USB keyboard may, indeed, be a part of the problem. I would
give it a shot with a PS2 keyboard and see if that fixes the problem. While
it's not a long term solution it might get you by. Beyond that, have you
tried to find an alternative application that's newer and doesn't rely on
DOS? I realize that this may not be something that can even be done, more so
if it's propriatary and the company is no longer around, but MOST
applications often have freeware alternatives. Give www.snapfiles.com a try
to see if there's something that fits your needs as well if you'd like.
They're good about letting you know if it's ad supported (most aren't there)
and they only keep 'clean' files there for the most part. I've never found a
single bit of malware there.

Galen